


One Chance

by imaginethat57



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-11
Updated: 2016-07-11
Packaged: 2018-07-22 23:26:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7457809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginethat57/pseuds/imaginethat57
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Kara confesses her love for Cat, it doesn't go how she had hoped. Now with Cat ignoring her and her heart growing heavier every day, she makes the only choice she has left.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Chance

A pit was forming in Kara’s stomach, growing larger, developing roots that snaked into her organs. They pierced into her heart, they wrapped around her lungs and squeezed, finally coiling in her stomach and weighing it heavily down. She clutched the cup of steaming hot latte in her hand and raised the other to push the glass door open. Clenching her jaw, she kept her eyes downcast and placed the cup on the desk on the other side of the room. Its recipient didn’t grace her with a single word, and Kara knew better by now not to linger. With the first sign of tears burning her eyes, she turned and quickly ducked out of the room.

Kara reached her own desk that had been recently moved further away from her boss’s, and she couldn’t stop herself from taking a moment to bury her face in her hands. She fought the tears, doing everything in her power not to let them spill. _No crying at work, Kara._

Kara wanted to laugh at that, if she had only known then she might not have agreed to that particular clause. But she was drawn from her misery by a hand landing softly on her shoulder. She jumped and quickly grabbed onto the wrist the hand was attached to and twisted it, rapidly standing up and bringing her other hand up to hold threateningly before the neck of the person who startled her.

“Whoa, whoa! Take it easy!” Winn shouted, drawing the eyes of several around them to observe the scene. Kara immediately retracted her hands and took a step away from her friend at the sound of his voice, recognizing the face before her and looking at him shamefully.

“I’m so sorry Winn, I didn’t know it was you and I just, I don’t know, I guess I’ve been a little on edge lately.” Kara winced as she watched Winn rub his wrist, even though he was smiling gently at her. She sighed in resignation and sat back against her desk, pinching the bridge of her nose.

Winn risked putting his hand on Kara’s shoulder again, and relaxed just a little when she didn’t flinch this time. His voice was gentle when he spoke, “I’ve noticed. That’s why I came over to check on you. I’m worried about you.”

A small watery chuckle escaped Kara’s throat and she looked up to Winn. She shrugged her shoulders and refused to meet his gaze when she returned his concern with a quiet, “I’m fine.”

Winn said nothing, he simply waited for Kara to crack and tell him what was upsetting her. Maybe she’d be better off talking it out with her sister, or James, hell he didn’t know, but he was certainly going to offer an ear if she needed it. He found he wasn’t waiting long.

“It’s Cat.” Kara whispered.

Winn waited again, and when no other information was forthcoming, he decided to press a little. “What did she do? It must have been nasty, because she usually never gets you worked up like this.”

Kara let out a little derisive snort at that and shook her head. She bit down on her lip before she finally let go of the pressure bottling up inside her, commanding her to talk to someone. “No, but that was before she hated me.”

“What are you talking about?” Winn wrinkled his brow in confusion, looking over his shoulder to Cat Grant’s office where he caught sight of the woman rubbing her temples, seeming almost as distraught as Kara.

“Promise not to tell anyone?” Kara followed his line of sight and felt the pit in her stomach growing larger and the weight of it caused her stomach to plummet.

Winn softly nudged Kara to a more private section of the office floor and spoke in a hushed tone, “Yeah, of course. What’s up?”

Kara stared at her feet for a long time, and Winn waited patiently. Finally, when Kara spoke up, she didn’t even lift her head. “I love her.”

“You- what?” Winn’s voice rose and Kara hurriedly shushed him. He looked contrite, and lowered his voice to a whisper once more, “Sorry, sorry. It’s just, I mean, you fell in love with the boss, Kara?”

“Yes, I did.” Kara placed one hand to her brow and closed her eyes again. “But that’s not the worst part.”

Winn just crossed his arms and waited once again, knowing it was best not to push Kara to talk before she was ready.

Finally, Kara began to approach the root of the problem. “I told her.”

Winn’s eyes went wide, but a smile was growing on his face and his voice was teeming with excitement when he said, “That’s amazing, Kara! It’s so brave. What did Cat say?”

“Nothing.” Kara stated blandly.

“What?” Winn looked at her dumbfounded and his eyes pleaded for an explanation.

“She said nothing. I told her I loved her. And she walked out of the room. She hasn’t spoken a single word to me since.” Kara was losing the battle against her tears this time as she continued, “That was three weeks ago. Now, she sends me all my assignments by email, and refuses to acknowledge me when I bring her her coffee in the morning. She hates me. She must be so incensed with me that she can’t even look at me, and I’m sure the only reason she hasn’t fired me is because she has no legal grounds to.”

“Kara, that’s absurd. How could she hate you? How could anyone hate you?” Winn’s attempt at encouragement failed, and Kara sucked in a sharp breath.

“Does it matter how? She does, and I’m-“ Kara’s voice cut off at the lump forming in her throat, and after she swallowed around it several times, she finished by meekly saying, “I don’t know what I am, but I’m not okay.”

Winn grimaced, and lightly held both of Kara’s biceps in his hands. “What are you going to do?”

“I think there’s only one thing left for me to do.” Kara responded.

* * *

 

Kara clenched her jaw tightly, released the tension, then clenched again. She stood outside Cat’s office, knowing she couldn’t linger long in front of the transparent panes of the windows. So she tipped her chin up, and marched into the office. She spoke no words, she’d given up the hope they’d be met with anything but silence. When she reached Cat’s desk, she placed a sheet of paper down on the glass surface.

When no response or recognition was forthcoming as Kara had expected, she turned swiftly and left the office, holding her head as high as possible. She was choking on the lump in her throat that had never left after her conversation with Winn, believing more roots to have taken hold of her esophagus. The petite honey blonde strode quickly to her desk and grabbed the cardboard box filled with her belongings as she went past.

She felt no qualms about letting her eyes leak now, so the tears streamed. Someone was stepping off the elevator as she neared it, so she slipped inside and pressed the button to close the doors. As she watched the office disappear behind metal doors, she tried to burn all of it into her memory.

Her efforts were interrupted by a hand appearing suddenly between the doors of the elevator, causing them to retract and reveal none other than Cat Grant staring at her. The woman’s eyes were fixed on Kara, filled with fire. She stepped into the elevator as well, but continued her three week streak of wordlessness. But only until the doors closed behind her. Then she pushed the button for the emergency stop and the machine stopped all movement.

“What is this?” Cat’s voice rang in Kara’s ears for the first time since her admission, and the younger woman was too stunned to respond until Cat repeated the question.

“Exactly what it says it is, my resignation letter.” Kara clutched the box of her belongings tighter to her chest, trying to hide behind it.

“Yes, I see you listed your reason for quitting as, ‘personal,’ and left it there. Would you care to explain your vagueness?” Cat demanded her question, she didn’t ask.

“Look, Miss Grant. Don’t pretend you’re clueless here cause we both know you’re not. You know why I’m quitting.” Kara spoke. Her voice was tinged with exasperation, but she pulled tighter into herself in an attempt to cushion the blows likely to come.

“You told me you loved me.” Cat stated, hands on her hips.

“Thank you for the recap,” Kara snarked, finally losing her patience, “And then you preceded to respond by utterly ignoring me, refusing to acknowledge my existence. And I mean completely. Not just as someone who loves you, but just as a person altogether. So why are you even here, I’m trying to do what you want me to, leave you alone completely so you never have to deal with me again.”

Cat said nothing for a long time, and Kara nodded as if she wasn’t expecting anything else.

“Right, just like that. So if you’re done, can I just leave in peace?” Kara moved to press the emergency stop button and bring the elevator back to life again, but Cat grabbed onto her hand before she could.

Cat looked stunned with herself, almost as much as Kara, and she stared at her hand holding the other’s. She brought her eyes up to Kara’s before she looked back to the delicate and calloused hand in her grasp. She played tentatively with the fingers until Kara’s palm laid open in her hand. Tracing the lines of the skin before her with her eyes, Cat brought the hand to her lips and placed a tender kiss to the sensitive flesh.

The feather light kiss impacted Kara’s chest like a ton of bricks, and she couldn’t quite pull air into her lungs. But she had no time to recover because Cat apparently hadn’t had enough, and more fragile kisses were placed on the inside of Kara’s wrist and inner arm. When Kara caught sight of Cat’s lips she could have sworn she saw them tremble.

Cat lifted her chin but finally pulled her lips from the pale skin of Kara’s arm. The box was precariously close to falling from where it was held between Kara’s free hand and her hip, so Cat released Kara’s arm to take the box, and place it on the floor. She stepped closer to Kara and began feathering kisses to the corner of Kara’s mouth, her cheeks, her nose, and Kara felt herself lulled into a dream like state.

But she couldn’t fight the anger that began bursting out of her chest, and she snapped. Shoving Cat away from her, she wiped the tears still evident on her cheeks and turned herself away from the other woman. Cat stumbled back and the jarring rejection stung on her skin like a fresh slap to the face.

“You don’t get to do that!” Kara cried out. “You don’t get to ignore me for weeks, treat me like crap, break my heart, then come in here and kiss me like you actually give a single damn about me!”

Cat could feel the bile rising in her throat as she watched Kara back away from her and shake her head. _Oh look at the mess you’ve made, Kitty._

“Kara, I’m sorry.”

The younger woman snorted in derision, and wiped again furiously as the continuing salty droplets fell.

“No, I am. Kara I am so sorry, I- I handled this poorly.” Cat insisted.

_“Poorly?”_ Kara repeated incredulously, staring at Cat with something too close to contempt for Cat to stomach.

“Well to put it lightly, I suppose.” Cat breathed out deeply and continued, “You told me you love me, and I didn’t know what to do. I’ve been running from how I feel for you for so long, and when you told me you loved me too? I panicked. I messed up. I just thought if I ignored all of it, my feelings, your words, and well, _you_ , maybe everything would just be okay and stop being hard and complicated, and I don’t know what else.”

“So what you’re telling me is you’re a chicken. I mean, I have worked for you for a long time, long before I fell for you. And I know most of your vices and flaws. But I never pegged you for a coward.” Kara drew her hand up to her chest as she spoke, as if she could block the hurt with it.

Cat’s eyes began filling with her own tears at that, and she spoke in a small voice when she said, “I deserve that.”

Kara said nothing, her chest heaved and she had long ago given up the fight to restrain her own tears. She watched Cat consider something for a long minute, before the older woman met her in the eye again.

“I do. I deserve that. But I’m trying to change that right now. I love you, Kara. So much. And if you’ll give me one chance, I want to try to make it up to you. I want to try to love you the way you deserve. At the very least, I will begin treating you with respect at work again. Please don’t quit because of me.” Cat Grant never begs. Not ever. But in this moment, maybe, just maybe, her words were a plea.

Kara chewed on her lip and looked to the corner of the elevator’s ceiling. Every second that ticked by beat like a drum in Cat’s ear, and her heart beat along to it. Kara lowered her chin again, and released her now slightly swollen lip. She held up a finger, and said, “One chance.”

Cat beamed and almost laughed with relief. She stepped forward again, and took Kara’s hands in hers, lacing their fingers together and squeezing gently. Kara looked to her with doe eyes and Cat couldn’t help herself. She leaned in and chastely kissed Kara’s lips, hoping desperately she wouldn’t be met with more rejection.

But Kara kissed back, and Cat reveled in it. The gentle press of Kara’s lips against hers tingled and made her hair stand up. She slowly sucked the other woman’s lip in between hers and began worrying it between her teeth and lips. Kara felt every nerve in her body prick with electricity at the sensation until they finally parted.

“Damn it, why do have to kiss like that?” Kara whispered against Cat’s lips. Before Cat could voice her confusion, Kara followed it with, “It’s going to be so much harder to stay mad at you.”

Cat laughed, before wiping some of Kara’s tears from her face. She reached for the resignation letter that had drifted to the floor and when she grasped it, she held it up and tore it in two. She then proceeded to press the emergency button once again, then the open door button. Before the doors listened to the command, she grabbed the box of belongings on the floor and lifted it up.

“Why don’t you go collect yourself for a bit, hm? I’ll return this to your desk and do the same in my office. Come back to work in fifteen minutes, Kara. The day’s only half over.” Cat winked, and strode out of the elevator. Kara watched, laughing to herself and swiping a hand down her face.

_What have I gotten myself into?_


End file.
